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| [installer] WHY OH WHY 125 dollars for a pole ? Long story short..
I have had Wildblue for 2 years now, with constant drops in connection, Its been OK service I guess, but it seems like we are always rebooting the modem from day 1..
then May 23rd of this year, the modem drops out and doesnt come back on. Its cloudy weather so we assume that is the cause. 2 days roll by the modem will connect for a couple mins at a time , 5 mins tops.
We call Wild Blue asking for a tech to come look at it. They say they cant send a tech and we will have to wait 4 days till a series of storms roll through the state. (not in my area mind you, My state)
A few days roll by we callback and the service rep said, sure we will send out a tech and that "waiting on the storms to roll through our area" is crazy, and no one at wildblue would ever say that. (I honestly didn't make it up) but whatever, a tech is on the way.. But the techs are busy its going to be like 7 days...
we wait.. Now at the 15 day mark without internet a tech shows up. replaces every single piece of equipment, its all blown, and not working. He states the Dish was installed wrong to begin with, LOS as it pointing at a tree, accuses me of moving the dish from the obvious wide open area of the yard. The grounding block is on the house upside down and replacing everything but the cables from the dish to the house still hasnt fixed the problem. They will need replaced, and they have to get wild blue to pay for that before they will do it. They call wildblue, and say they will be back tuesday (this is a friday)
Tuesday comes and Nothing, the installer calls and asks us to call wildblue and see if they have approved our reinstall... Umm Ok, Wildblue hasn't acted on it, and on Thursday and finally calling a dozen times, approves what we are told is a reinstall to the proper location in the yard. Next possible service date.. Monday (i.e. Yesterday)
Yesterday the guys show up to install, take the dish off the pole and tell us its not a complete reinstall and we will have to pay 125.00 for a new pole. To which I reply "I have already paid for the pole, its in the front yard" 125 dollars for a 6 foot steel pole seems pricey, but I shouldn't have to pay for it. I bought one before and it was installed wrong..
THe installers call wildblue and after some complaining they get the ok to put in a new pole as well.. But they didn't bring any poles with them and more calling finds out there are none anywhere in Ohio. Now I don't know who all has seen these poles but they are the same size as a Chain Link fence post, there is nothing special or magical about them that I can see. They certainly aren't worth 125 dollars.
So the installers say they will be back today with the Magical Pole, but its 1:32 pm and no sign of them yet. Its June 16th and I lost internet May 23rd, and Wildblue still hasn't delivered internet I am paying 80 dollars a month for.
I wish I had another choice for internet, because you don't get wildblue or hughesnet because you want their service. But Hey I live in Ohio, 3 miles from the center of a town with 20K people, However DSL and Cable aren't available because we wouldn't be profitable. | |
| quote:
Yesterday the guys show up to install, take the dish off the pole and tell us its not a complete reinstall and we will have to pay 125.00 for a new pole. To which I reply "I have already paid for the pole, its in the front yard" 125 dollars for a 6 foot steel pole seems pricey, but I shouldn't have to pay for it. I bought one before and it was installed wrong.
Who installed the last pole? I think it's a problem for you that you accepted what sounds like a poor install for 2 years. It would have been easier to demand that be corrected right away. And I suppose no one can predict exactly how fast trees will grow, but if there was a better location on the site and they located it in a poor location where a reasonable person would expect a tree to grow into the line of sight in the forseeable future, I'd stay on whomever did the previous install to recover that money to pay the current installer.
quote:
Now I don't know who all has seen these poles but they are the same size as a Chain Link fence post, there is nothing special or magical about them that I can see. They certainly aren't worth 125 dollars.
Either you need a thick wall 2" O.D. pole (as NRTC used when they first started installing in 2005 - thin wall will not work as it will have too much flex) - I paid over $60 just for this pipe as pole adapters weren't available then - or you need a pole adapter. You also need the concrete, time to dig the hole, conduit to put the cable in for an ideal install, time to dig the trench... Having put my own pole in, I consider $100 very fair and wouldn't feel ripped off paying $125.
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Very happy TDS DSL user | Wildblue in Lake Michigan | |
 grohgregDunno. Ask The Chief
join:2001-07-05
Dawson Springs, KY | reply to Swallx
Yup. If you were to buy the correct pole and concrete yourself, dig the hole and the cable trench yourself, wait for the concrete to dry, run the conduit/cable/ground wire (to code), cover the trench - I think you'd have a different opinion of whether or not it's a $125 job
//greg//
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HN7000S/98cm Prodelin/2w Osiris/ProPlus - G16/1250H/Germantown - NAT 66.82.187.152/Gateway 66.82.25.10/DNS 66.82.4.12 and 66.82.4.8 - Firefox 3 - AV/Firewalled by NIS2009 | |
| reply to Swallx
Wildblue is cheap and the installers want to get paid. Just because they didn’t install the pole right the first time doesn’t mean they will install the pole right the second time. I guess you will find out next spring. Ask Jeff why he put in his own pipe him self, how deep the hole was and the amount of money spent on cement. If you can grab the pole at the top and twang it or move it that is no good. | |
 N4STJimPremium
join:2005-11-25
Jersey, VA | reply to Swallx
I bought my own pole for $55, added anti-rotation bolts, dug the hole, added 150lbs of concrete, paid $20 for a pole adapter, and spray painted everything black. I would gladly have paid $125 for someone else to do that for me. (Assuming they did it right).
I did get a good install, at 3-years 7 months without a service call.
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Anik F2 | WildBlue Pro Pak | Beam 37 | Laredo NOC | Since Nov 2005 | Linksys WRT54GX-v2| Windows XP | Homebrew PC | |
 EarthSignalEarthsignalPremium
join:2002-10-03
Burlington, IA
 ·WildBlue
| reply to Swallx
A agree with the other about the price. I installed my own three years ago and it still is rock solid but I saved little if any money. Do have the satisfaction of knowing it's not going to move unless a tree falls on it.
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Ron ~ Wildblue Select Pak since 01-2006, Anik F2 Beam 26, service through NRTC, Dell XPS, 2Gig Ram, XP Pro, Router DD-WRT- WRT54GL, Laptop, XP home | | |
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| said by EarthSignal:I installed my own three years ago and it still is rock solid but I saved little if any money. For me, saving money was not the issue...but having a firm pole in the ground before they showed up. I used steel pipe set in concrete...still standing, vertically, since beginning days of WB. | |
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